[Mika]

This thing makes me wonder if I will see a war with laser guns in my life time. If they can get a laser gun working so that a common soldier can carry it will be a new revolution of the warfare, probably rendering lots of weapons obsolete.

Mika

[BloodEagle]

This thing makes me wonder if I will see a war with laser guns in my life time. If they can get a laser gun working so that a common soldier can carry it will be a new revolution of the warfare, probably rendering lots of weapons obsolete.

Mika

Until someone starts wearing mirrors. 

[Maxwell]

So building a nuclear reactor in your shed is fine with you?

Actually I'm more comfortable with the idea of a well meaning bloke making his own breeder reactor and having an "oops" than I am with the thought of them selling a pallet of household cleaner or fertilizer to someone with ill intentions.
Just because some common chemical or item includes no buzzwords does not make it safer for society as a whole.

So yes in my ideal nation sometimes a building will burn down by accident and occasionally someone will short out the cities lights with his new invention... but accepting the risk has lead to a number of Steve Jobs and Burt Rutan types who innovate and make our lives more interesting. Making plenty of good for the damage they sometimes cause.

What good is living in fear gonna do?
You cant expect everyone to walk around in a bubble of government protection their entire lives.

[karajorma]

Well funnily enough I prefer to live in a world where the government know exactly who is in control of a nuclear reactor in their own country. If you consider that to be excessive government interference there's really not much I can say to that.

[Mars]

How much does this thing weigh? And does it actually use a clip?

[Maxwell]

Well funnily enough I prefer to live in a world where the government know exactly who is in control of a nuclear reactor in their own country. If you consider that to be excessive government interference there's really not much I can say to that.

What makes things inconvenient for you is this is a world where they tried to be in charge of all the nuclear materials and reactor making know how in order to prevent exactly such a thing as what happened.
So we got all the troubles of regulation, spent the money for it, made mountains of paperwork, had the spooks eavedropping on scientists and doing lord knows what else... but we did not get the security this was all intended to provide.

Thats a bad deal.

[jr2]

How much does this thing weigh? And does it actually use a clip?

No, no clip... I"ll quote the article for you, look at the first post again.

EDIT:  Done.  Now, there should be no need to actually visit the site.  I am sorry for aiding and abetting laziness, but what can I say? 

[Herra Tohtori]

(...lasers...)

Until someone starts wearing mirrors. 

High enough energy density, and the glass melts and the metal surface on/below it vaporizes.

So unfortunately no, tin foil hats/suits will still not save you from the government.

[jr2]

...Yeah.... the Ruby laser (IIRC) actually functions by bouncing a laser back and forth between two mirrors, one of them intentionally a bit weaker than the other.  The laser eventually breaks through the weak one.

[Mika]

(...lasers...)
Until someone starts wearing mirrors. 

High enough energy density, and the glass melts and the metal surface on/below it vaporizes.

So unfortunately no, tin foil hats/suits will still not save you from the government.

At that point I would expect that the prices of the diffractive elements would drop drastically, they are probably the only thing that might have a theoretical chance to divert such a beam. But try to keep them clean in a combat environment.

Besides, wouldn't it be much more funnier to clean the lens of the laser gun rather than opening the gunpowder based weapons and cleaning them?

EDIT: Bad typo with tags

[colecampbell666]

Ya, well, in NY, they regulate crossbows and throwing knives, too... not that it helps much.  Do they wish to regulate steak knives?  What about when someone puts together their own crossbow?  I think all you need is heavy consequences for using weapons in crimes.

In York it is legal to shoot a Scotsman with a bow and arrow on Sunday. 

/Serious  Really cool, if the projectile is 12x heavier than a bullet and 30% as fast that equals more killing power.

[jr2]

12x heavier than a pellet and 30% as fast.  (Pellets are .177 (in.) or 6mm (I think... or 8mm).)

[Fozzy]

I want one of those cute furry animals there sweet, kind of reminds me of my girlfriend, (not) lol

[Mars]

Trouble with lasers is that the vapors they produce at the surface of the target material actually blocks the beam

[Wanderer]

Also that laser (weapon scale) actually does points out the shooter. AFAIK - given the amount of energy output - even if the power of the laser wouldn't be high enough to cause air to ionize and cause 'linear lightning' type effect it would still be more than enough to heat the air on the laser's path making the shooting and especially the shooter visible to any IR sensor. Almost worse than tracer.

[Maxwell]

Artillery fire also points out the attacker.
Theres such a thing as counter battery fire where you can be attacked shortly after firing because the enemy had the means to track your shells.

The major benefit of a laser today is the fact it has no real windage or trajectory to worry about. Which makes pulling off extremely difficult shots much easier.

So if you want to do something like shoot a missile in flight (where anything with the striking force of a .22 pistol is plenty and vapor buildup is a non issue) this is about as perfect a weapon as you can find.
Only problem is powering the thing.

[Mars]

The airborne laser is a chemical laser, it doesn't use electrical power.

 

[watsisname]

Regarding lasers, one big problem with using them in warfare (as lethal weapons) is their complexity.  Guns are relatively simple things, and anyone trained in using them can fix a jam and whatnot without too much difficulty.  Not to mention they're pretty sturdy, so it's not a big risk of having a problem with one.   And should a gun be rendered unusable, so what?  There's certainly plenty more available due to low construction costs.

Lasers are fare less simplistic in their operation, and any number of malfunctions could occur that could take an unreasonable amount of time to fix, if it's even fixable at all.  Also note that powerful lasers require a pretty powerful cooling system, and that can make them heavy/bulky.  Not exactly something I'd want to use as a soldier, though admittedly they're pretty badass.

[Mefustae]

Lasers are fare less simplistic in their operation, and any number of malfunctions could occur that could take an unreasonable amount of time to fix, if it's even fixable at all.  Also note that powerful lasers require a pretty powerful cooling system, and that can make them heavy/bulky.  Not exactly something I'd want to use as a soldier, though admittedly they're pretty badass.

They work like a charm when tasked with shooting down projectiles, if the THEL is any indication. But it's just as you described, the amount of technical support coupled with the exotic chemicals and complexity of the overall device mean a truly mobile version is a long way off, demonstrated by the slow progress of the MTHEL. Fact of the matter is that bullets are 3 cents a pop, and unless that changes anytime soon, we won't be seeing handheld lasers for a good while yet.

Although, i'd love to see what a THEL could do to a human being...

[Mika]

I think the ground based lasers would be extremely effective as anti-aircraft artillery batteries. They can be also be aimed with visual sights so no problem of alarming anyone with a radar lock and so it is definetely worth a thought at least. It will be interesting to see what practical difficulties there will be in constructing such things. The efficiency of laser systems is generally not very high, if one doesn't count semiconductor-type lasers, so the soldiers' version of a laser rifle is difficult at the moment. Tracked version might be easier to implement.

I'm not sure about the vaporization problem, lasers are used in welding and cutting processes already.

Mika